Ride Capital Metro for 4th of July fun

In just two days, Austinites can enjoy yet another free 4th of July concert by the Austin Symphony, capped off with fireworks. It’s happening at Auditorium Shores and the Long Center, beginning at 8:30 p.m. (fireworks at 9:30 p.m.).

Traffic and parking are messy for this event, so think about jumping on Capital Metro–we have a bunch of routes that serve Auditorium Shores. Routes that serve Auditorium Shores include 1L/1M, 3, 7, 10, 20, 30, 328, 338, and the Night Owls. Most routes operate until around midnight, and the Night Owls run from 12 – 3 a.m.

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6 thoughts on “Ride Capital Metro for 4th of July fun”

M1EK

Are the buses being given their own lane through S 1st, at least? If not, this will just repeat the debacle of event after event – where CM buses are stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, giving people no logical incentive to leave their car at home.

The buses will have to contend with traffic, too. The incentive to leave the car at home is more about not having to try to find parking (or pay an arm and a leg for it), and also not dealing with the stress of navigating the traffic as a driver. Riding the bus, you may still be stuck in some traffic, but thankfully you can sit back and relax, as dealing with the traffic will be the Capital Metro bus operator's problem–not yours.

Which is, of course, absolute nonsense – the last time I made the mistake of taking the bus to a busy event (Flugtag), I ended up missing half the event and walking several miles (on arthritic feet) with my 3 and 13-year-olds (to find a bus that had a route home that wasn't gridlocked).

With our car, we'd have found parking somewhere closer than what we ended up having to walk; and I could have taken whatever way around the clog I wanted – driving south and then east and then north, for instance.

This is symptomatic of the typical problem with transit in this area – a complete failure to put yourselves in the shoes of the prospective rider and wonder if they're better off on the bus or in their car on a given trip.

Capital Metro did a horrible job managing the buses for the 4th of July event. My family waited almost 2 hours after the fireworks for a bus to pick us up, as all of the normally scheduled buses were late. In the future, CapMetro needs to learn from other transit agencies by strategically placing extra buses on routes to get people to large events, and then to pick them up on the way back. I understand that the FTA does not allow "special event" shuttles that compete with charter bus companies, but this rule does not preclude Capital Metro from adding additional vehicles to the regular routes. It is unfortunate that this is just one more embarrasing incident for Capital Metro – it seems that you can never get anything right!

I am fortunate to live a short walk from Auditorium Shores, but I fully understand where M1EK is coming from on this issue. I walked to the fireworks show on 7/4 and I was appalled by the gridlock. I couldn't believe that that many people would think that they could drive their cars to South First and Riverside and then go hunting for parking. It was complete stagnation.

Now, if the cops shut down the whole neighborhood, you'd have no choice but to hop on public transit for the nice, easy, three-minute ride right to the show.

But ohh no, God no, we'll take away Texans' guns before we'll ever get up the nerve to deprive them of their constitutional right to cause gridlock.

As long as Texans have a choice between their cars and a bus, 99 percent of them are going to continue to choose their cars, no matter how little sense it makes. I know many who spend more each month on their cars than they do on their homes.

Don, it doesn't even have to be that intrusive. Just make sure a route is punched through for the shuttle buses (i.e., set aside a lane for nothing but shuttle-buses on 1st st all the way down to Oltorf, all the way north to CC and then over to Congress and up to at least the Capitol), and then the cars stuck in gridlock will get the message next time.

But, no, we have to labor under the false apprehension that people will take the bus just because we ask nicely.